WEST BANK: Workers, under the protection of Israeli forces, have begun clearing and leveling land in the village of Faqqu’a, northeast of Jenin, to prepare the site for a new settlement outpost, Palestinian officials said.
Barakat Al-Amri, head of the village council, said the work followed the construction of a military access road linking the site to the main road between Faqqu’a and the neighboring village of Arabuna, the Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.
Although no new land seizure orders have been issued, he warned that the outpost would separate the two villages and restrict hundreds of Palestinian residents from reaching farmland along the barrier, where access is already tightly controlled.
The new outpost was being built on land adjacent to Israel’s separation barrier using land previously seized under military orders issued in 2008, Al-Amri said.
Elsewhere in the northern West Bank, Israeli forces converted four Palestinian homes into temporary military positions in the village of Tal, southwest of Nablus, WAFA reported.
